Any excuse to dive further into trig is fine with me - it is one of my favorite forms of math. It will take me a while to parse out your formula. Unfortunately, I tend to work visually for trig problems. I just thought an ellipse because it seems like it might be easier to solve. We see the...
I worked it out on paper from Stellarium and it is a bit off - about 4 degrees. I am guessing the radius (in degrees) of the Sun's orbit and the visible arc angles are just not aligning. the problem, as I see it, is that the Sun moves in an apparent ellipse, so circular trig won't do it.
Yes, hopefully our theoretical navigator can suss that out. But true, it would have to be made explicit. Close to the Equator it would be tricky I would guess.
Yes, in this thought experiment you have a chronometer, not just a stopwatch. I would synch mine to Solar Noon at Greenwich to make longitude calculation easier.
OK, see if this makes sense. In the image below, the green line is the horizon. The blue circle is the Sun's path above and below the horizon.
The altitude ascending and descending is a1 (also line BX). If we know the radius of the circle that the Sun follows, then we can calculate the angle...
Thanks for the response. We can know a little more in this instance. With the second sight (at the same altitude, as the sun descends), we know some parameters of the sun's path. The sun follows an ellipse, and with two sights, can we not infer the shape of the sun's path and, in some way...
Hi. I have this idea that might be useful for celestial navigation. If you were on a random place on the Earth, and you had a way of measuring the altitude of the sun above the horizon, at a precise moment, could you then predict the complete path, such that you could determine the altitude at...
Hi all.
I am a scientist by trade, but evolutionary biology, not astronomy. I am interested in celestial navigation as a side hobby and am interested in working out some ideas for new methods. I thought I would chat with some folks here.